NEW DELHI: Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Monday highlighted a recent report by industry body FICCI and consulting firm EY revealing that approximately 2 million deaths in India, accounting for nearly 22 per cent of total mortality, were attributable to air pollution in 2023.
In a post on X, Ramesh accused the Modi government of remaining in persistent denial regarding the severe health hazards posed by toxic air.
“The Modi Govt has long been in denial on the impacts of air pollution on mortality in the country. It has rejected, both in Parliament and outside, a number of studies on the grounds that they are not India-specific and that the impacts are not direct and uniquely attributable,” he said.
Calling on the Centre to prioritise the “ease of breathing” over economic metrics, Ramesh said, “Now comes a detailed FICCI-EY report that says categorically that around 2 million deaths (about 22% of total) were attributable to air pollution in India in 2023. This is yet another wake-up call for the somnolent Modi Govt. Ease of doing business is fine, but ease of breathing is even more fundamental. PM2.5 has become a deadly killer across many parts of India.”
Ramesh outlined a three-step roadmap for immediate national reform based on the FICCI-EY findings.
According to Ramesh, there is a need to tighten PM2.5 and ozone standards to align with World Health Organisation (WHO) safety guidelines, restructure the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) with a targeted focus on fine particulate matter and ozone, and enact a comprehensive, public-health-centric Clean Air Act to replace the outdated Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act of 1981.
